Variety of Funding Sources Tapped for Sliding Hillside

The total estimated cost of the hill-slide stabilization project at Sheridan Junior High and Kendrick Avenue is just over $7 million.

In 2017, a portion of the hillside failed, affecting property owned by the City of Sheridan and by Sheridan County School District #2 (SCSD#2). In March 2018, the two entities agreed to hire an engineering firm to determine the best way to correct the failure and also prevent further failures.

The City contracted with Hayward Baker to provide the study, which was 90 percent complete as of Dec. 24, 2018.

According to the new memorandum of understanding (MOU), the City would pay for 77.42 percent or $5.43 million of the project, and SCSD#2 would cover 22.58 percent or $1.58 million.

At last night’s City Council study session, Public Works Director Lane Thompson outlined exactly where that money is expected to come from:

$3.75 million from a USDA grant

$1.6 million from SCSD#2

$1.63 million from a state revolving fund clean water loan

$350,000 from a minerals royalty grant

“As all of us who’ve been around here know, this hillside’s been moving since all of us were in high school or earlier,” Thompson told the City Council.

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Hayward Baker estimates construction, which will include a natural-looking retaining wall, to take between four and five months.

Thompson said the estimate does include a 5-year warranty period on the stabilization project with the opportunity to extend that warranty in the future at an additional cost.

The Sheridan City Council is scheduled to vote on the MOU at their next meeting, scheduled for Monday, March 18, at 7 p.m.